Girdwood Land Use Committee
August 14, 2017
Minutes Draft
Agenda Item LUC 1708-01:
Call to order 7:04PM Brian Burnett
Tim Cabana and Di Powers are not in attendance.
Agenda Approved for August 14, 2017 Regular Meeting
Minutes Approved from July 10, 2017 Regular Meeting
LUC Officer reports - None
Announcements & Presentations:
Turnagain Arm Police Service Area (TAPSA) Meeting will be held Aug 23 7PM in the Girdwood Community Room.
Agenda Item LUC 1708-02: Public Comment
Brian Burnett welcomes Jonnie Lazarus, who is in town temporarily this summer and is attending this meeting.
Agenda Item LUC 1708-03: Committee reports:
GBOS Report (Mike Edgington):
GBOS has been meeting regarding setting the 2018 budget. Property taxes within the GVSA will go up as the 2017 budget was subsidized by overage from 2016 policing contribution. The municipal Areawide budget is being cut by 10% in all departments except public safety, which will be cut by 5%.This is likely to impact Girdwood’s Areawide services, however we don’t yet know specifics on this. GVSA budget is expected to be approved at the August GBOS meeting.
Trails Committee Report (Kate Sandberg):
GTC met last week and approved the draft Girdwood Trails Management Plan, which will be presented later in this meeting. Alyeska Pedestrian Safety Corridor is complete. SCA completed trail work over 3.5 weeks of work. This concludes trail work planned on the Beaver Pond Trail and will close out the Anchorage Park Foundation Grant for this project. GTC will begin working on the lower Iditarod National Historic Trail this fall, pending permits from the Army Corps of Engineers. Hand tram rope was replaced last week after it was discovered that the rope was frayed.
Girdwood Area Plan Update Committee (Diana Livingston & Lewis Leonard)
GAP group approved mission statements for the committee and for the plan:
The mission of the Girdwood Area Plan Update Committee is to fund and complete a transparent, inclusive review of the Girdwood Area Plan to guide Girdwood land use in an orderly and understandable process that is respectful of all views.
Area Plan Mission:
“Guiding Girdwood land use: creating a framework for the future development of Girdwood.”
Group is reviewing projects identified in old plan and is categorizing them as: complete, partially complete, relevant, no longer relevant.
Jerry Fox has been in contact with Anchorage Community Land Trust, which assisted in the Mountain View Area Plan. A representative from ACLT will be invited to attend a GAP meeting in September to review funding sources and public outreach efforts that were successful with the Mountain View effort. Rosey Fletcher will be invited to attend a future meeting of the GAP as well, to discuss de-unification research committee. There may be crossover in the GAP and the De-unification research, and a discussion of on-going interest in de-unification should be discussed in the plan as this component was not included in the past plan.
Girdwood Land Use Committee Meeting Agendas and minutes are available on line: http://www.muni.org/gbos
Brian Burnett asked about including the Girdwood Trails Management Plan in the Girdwood Area Plan Update. Lewis agrees that it should be included, with a brief discussion of the management plan, trail maps and a link to the full plan. This topic will be added to the GAP meeting agenda for the August 23 meeting.
Diana Livingston says that she is requesting that Girdwood Area Plan Update become a sponsored project of Girdwood Inc so that GAP can apply for grant funding under the Girdwood Inc 501c3.
Cemetery Committee (Kyle Kelley):
July 16 was the Cemetery walk-thru of the site. Area is surveyed and setbacks are marked. Tommy O’Malley will meet and provide a tour. Group is in the visioning phase of the project, gathering information from the community on the type of cemetery and the amenities desired. There is resistance from neighbors regarding development of a cemetery near their properties. Committee members recommended that the committee continue to work to resolve those concerns with the neighbors. The next step will be to take the items learned in the visioning phase to CRW engineers and request an estimate to receive proposals for engineering, permitting, design and construction.
CRW Engineers is expected to attend the September Cemetery meeting.
Title 21, Chapter 9 Review Committee (Tim Cabana & Marco Zaccaro)
No report.
HLB Commission Report (Nicole Jones Vogel, HLB)
Nicole reports that there was no HLBAC meeting in August. September HLBAC meeting has no Girdwood items currently on the agenda. HLBAC will begin work on the 2018 work plan at the HLB Meeting on October 10 in Girdwood. Plan is for HLBAC to have a retreat, site visit of the industrial park, and regular meeting for public to attend. Meeting is scheduled for TUE Oct 10 at 12N in the Girdwood Community Center.
Bristol Construction was awarded the bid for the Industrial Park construction. This project will be completed, except for paving, this year.
Previously HLB has presented regarding a Wetland Mitigation Land Bank. Wetland delineation has now been received and HLB is likely to come back to LUC and GBOS with more information in September/October to present.
Friends of the Skate Park (Kyle Kelley)
Skate park has self-funded entirely the cost of the half pipe, with donations and an Anchorage Park Foundation grant. On FRI and SAT group cut most of the pieces to create the new half pipe. Waiting for skatelight to be delivered in September and then they plan a 2 day work session to build it.
Parks and Rec has paint to repair some chipping paint on the metal ramps.
Old Business:
Agenda Item LUC 1409-04: Update on Girdwood Industrial Park
Update already provided under HLB Commission Report.
Mike Edgington asked about the amount of fill received from the Girdwood Airport hangar construction project. Nicole Jones-Vogel confirms that a lot more material has been moved to the Industrial Park than was anticipated at the outset. Material is being added to lots in Phase 2 and Phase 3, however there is no funding to develop those phases, which will be developed together in order to be cost effective.
Agenda Item LUC 1705-07: Update on Conditional Use process for a multi-family housing project on Lot 12, Taos Road. Group will request GBOS Resolution of Support for a conditional land use permit when full review process has been completed.
No update to this project, this topic will be tabled until packet is received from Planning and Zoning.
Agenda Item LUC 1705-08: Title 21 Chapter 9 Review: Off-street parking standards (Marco Zaccaro & Tim Cabana)
No update on this specific element of the review committee’s work.
Agenda Item LUC 1707-04: State License Renewal for The Herbal Cache
No input has been received by Girdwood MOA office regarding the renewal. Overall comments at the public attending LUC is that The Herbal Cache is working well in the community and is a positive asset in the community. This requires no follow-up for the license renewal.
New Business:
Agenda Item LUC 1708-04: Review and comparison of update GBOS Rules and Procedures with LUC Operating Principles.
LUC reviewed operating principles and concluded that process in December, 2016. Since then GBOS has been working on their Rules and Procedures and has made some changes to sections other than the Conditional Use Process. Final approval by GBOS is expected at the Aug 21 GBOS regular meeting.
Crossover with the two sets of guiding documents regarding Conditional Use Permits requires that change of one will change the other to keep both documents consistent with each other. GBOS made no changes to their Rules and Principles regarding the Conditional Use Permit process. GBOS and LUC can review specific language at their joint meeting in September. A separate document, the Conditional Use Permit Process information, which also outlines the process, was missing a sentence compared to the information in the LUC principles and GBOS rules. This document has been updated and is on the website under Land Use Documents.
Agenda Item LUC 1708-05: Consider agenda topics for GBOS/LUC Joint Quarterly meeting on MON September 18 at 6pm in the Girdwood Community Room.
· LUC Operating Principles and the GBOS Rules and Procedures regarding Conditional Use Permits
· Review of 2018 GVSA Approved Budget
GBOS will review these topics and may add others at their meeting Aug 21.
Agenda Item LUC 1708-06: Girdwood Trails Plan. Initial Presentation of the Girdwood Trails Plan. Group will seek recommendation to GBOS for Resolution of Support at the September LUC meeting.
Kate Sandberg presented the Girdwood Valley Trails Management plan with overhead projection of the current draft document. This is a living document that will be changed and updated as needed and will be reviewed by GTC in January annually.
This project has been in the works for 5+ years, strictly with volunteer effort and grant funding from KMTA.
Document is on line and hard copies are on the library for public review.
Public meeting for review is scheduled for TUE Sept 5 at 6PM in the Girdwood Community Room.
Document outlines the goals, trails and management practices for those trails to provide a guide for future work on trails, and we are already using these guidelines to establish work by SCA and others on trails.
In addition to some trail descriptions that are being drafted, the trail narratives need to address other elements, such as how they were named. For example, a short history of the meaning and history of trails such as Abe’s, Wagon Trail, Beaver Pond.
Brian Burnett thanks Kate Sandberg for taking on the project when she did, as it was losing momentum. Other trails plans similar to this have cost upwards of $75,000. It’s a significant step forward for GTC to have this plan to document the trails and the future of them in Girdwood.
Agenda Item LUC 1708-07: Girdwood Community Club Continuation of No-fee Lease for their facilities in Girdwood Park. Group will seek recommendation by LUC for GBOS Resolution at LUC September 2017 regular meeting.
Lewis Leonard provided a history of the Girdwood Community Club’s building, which was constructed in 1952 and served as the town hall and school. After the 1964 earthquake, the building was moved to its current location, where it has been used as the library, a playroom for Little Bears Playhouse, and as the Parks and Rec office, and now it is the home of the Girdwood Community Club/KEUL. The building is owned by the Girdwood Community Club, the land it sits on is MOA Parks and Rec land.
Girdwood Community Club is requesting a continued long term (5 year) lease at no fee and will seek recommendation from LUC for the GBOS to write a Resolution of Support for the no fee 5 year lease.
A draft of this Resolution of Support is provided at this meeting.
Meeting Adjourned 8:07PM
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